During my years of selling properties in Spain, I have come across a number of unfortunate incidences, where home sellers decided it was a good idea to use their friend to sell their home in Spain. They’re in the business of selling houses anyway, so using them would be the most logical thing to do, right? Wrong!
This choice is full of risks, both financially and on your relationship. But more importantly, it could jeopardize the success of your property sale.
Using a family member or friend can become fraught. Just think, if they’re not an independent Real Estate Agent, they’ll find it difficult to advise you correctly, regarding price. You’ll naturally want as much as you can get, but they daren’t tell you the true market value because they won’t want to hurt your feelings, and instead, they’ll go with the figure you’re suggesting. If they dare to
negatively comment on the figure you’d hoped for, you’re going to feel like they’re insulting you. It makes it more difficult to disagree on price, when it’s between family or friends.
If they comment on any repairs that need fixing, you may feel that they are
being unkind, and you’re going to take great offense with any criticism.
If the house didn’t sell quickly enough, the tension between seller and “friend” grows, and that’s when things get awkward. Even though you can see your friend is trying their best, you just can’t stop that nagging feeling of… “what if they could be doing more?” but you don’t want to insult them.
The feeling of frustration will continue on both sides. The home seller wants their property sold, the friend wants to sell their home, but because of their relationship, they couldn’t agree to get the deal done professionally.
Even friends want paying! Using a friend you may think, would save you money. But really the friend will be expecting to be paid too! This is the ultimate, cringe worthy dialogue, that no-one wants to have with a friend.
Money is the highest reason for destroying friendships the fastest. So if you want to keep your friendly relationship going – use an independent Real Estate Agent!
Selling? Enjoy the journey!
We are in need of more properties to meet the demand of our waiting buyers. Ready to have your home showcased in the centre pages of this newspaper? Send an email to sales@homes4u.es to schedule a chat with me, Rebecca Serwotka.